Laser printer for B&W

[Jochen_S]

I'm sure I can't afford no home inkjeting in the long run. I know

Xerox 2060 color laser prints being good enough / quite impressive. I

can live without color. So what printer to get? I need advice about

b&W laserprinters which deliver good picture quality at low cost. I

usually won't print more than 100 sheets/month. I'd like to use

coated paper for digital printing with Xerox or Indigo of 135g/sqm

for my pictures. A max sheet size of DIN A4 is O.K. for me; I have

only 6Mpix. I'm not willing to buy any cheap unpleasant junk; I'd

prefer to save a bit longer. Are there any sources of information

outside? Till now I only discovered office lasers or photo inkjets.

Please excuse my strange question and thanks a lot. Please let me

also know if there is nothing comparable to Xerox Pro-printers in my

price range and what the differences are.

[Ed_Ingold]

The best color laser printer is nowhere near photographic quality. The dynamic range and color gamut are limited, closer to ordinary offset printing. Even an inexpensive photo inkjet will produce far better results.

 

The new Xerox 6xxx series color lasers look very good from samples I've seen. I have an older Tektronix (which is now Xerox) 740P which I use for brochures, CD covers, and the like. Call or write Xerox, and they will send you printed samples so you can judge for yourself. You can get on in the US for $2000 to $3000, depending on the bells and whistles.

 

Xerox 84xx printers are cheaper, but operate on a different principle: solid wax toner sticks, rather than colored vinyl powder. The image is relatively soft and easily scratched or damaged, particularly if subjected to heat. The colors are too contrasty for my taste.

 

Hewlett Packard makes very fine printers as well. IMO, they are better suited to business graphics. Like their inkjets, the colors are too splashy for my taste. HP printers are cheaper to operate and have excellent paper feeding. Again, ask for samples.

 

There are a lot of other manufacturers, but not of photographic quality (in this price range).

 

Not all glossy coated papers (for offset printing) can be used in laser printers, as the coating may melt and damage the fusing roller. 135 g/m2 is about the heaviest stock you can ever use (100# Glossy Text). Official Xerox paper works best, but costs over $1/sheet. I haven't found any offset paper as bright or opaque as premium photo inkjet paper.

[blueviews]

Edward: I think that Jochen was interested in a black and white laser printer that makes photo quality on b&w paper. We have an HP laser that does OK for B&W priting on color paper but just barely.

Jochen: at the quantities that you want to print and if you are interested in the best quality B&W I would get a used Epson 1270/1280/1290 and go the piezo route. Cheap enough and you have lots more control over output than with any laser that we have seen.

Bill

[jon_austin]

I see no (financial) reason to "live without color," and if you're only planning to print 100 or so sheets per month, the cost of consumables for a current-model inkjet won't be much at all.

 

In my experience (and research), the higher end photo-quality inkjets -- while the most expensive -- are also the most conservative in terms of ink consumption. So if you're willing to invest in what would probably be a fairly expensive laser printer, you'd likely be better served by a high-end inkjet model. It would cost less, consume ink quite sparingly, and produce the best prints.

 

I'd recommend a Canon i9100 or i9900, but I'm biased. I understand that HP makes some excellent inkjet models that are either specifically designed or easily outfitted for B&W output. The bad news is that it's virtually impossible with today's technology for any single unit to excel at both B&W and color output.

[david_ditzel3]

I service many different brands of printers and have the ability to compare the output quality of these. From a customer service, economy, reliability, and quality standpoint in laser printers, Hewlett Packard is the winner in my book. Although, if you are looking for photographic quality black and white prints buy a good inkjet printer from Epson. I would stay away from Lexmark and Xerox products because of poor customer service and repair parts availability.

[Jochen_S]

Especially to the repairman... Well I'm not considering buying a photo-inkjet during the next time. I'm not sure if I'll be able to do proper color management and I mostly need to do office stuff. The nearly-offset-quality of lasers seem to be good enough for a beginning and for good pictures there are still labs. I suppose I don't need the fast workflow of color home inkjetting, and I hate color printing enough from my work (if I have some) to defend my home and leisure-time against it.

[Ed_Ingold]

Laser printers that I've seen or used cannot do a remotely acceptible job on black-and-white photos, including my 740P. B&W is hard enough to do with a dye-based inkjet. On a laser printer, the results are very contrasty and have poor coverage. Furthermore, there is no blending like you would get with a liquid ink. Minor irregularities in the imaging path shows up as streaks. Grim!